Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey guys, wanted to tell you about my sunday boating experience... and how it's still very much a " learn as you go" process for me. As many of you know, I've been involved in boating for a very short period of time, only had my boat in the water 3 times.... ok, my son who lives about 100 miles from here, but still comes home on weekends to visit his girlfriend ( and sometimes us ) calls me last thursday and says hey pop, what do you say to me and you taking your new boat out this sunday and just cruzin for awhile. ( his girlfriend is a med student and had to study all day, and my wife was out of town on a biz. trip ) So naturally here's a very rare chance to spend an entire afternoon with my only son, just he and I, doing the one thing that both of us are interested in. ( he bought a pontoon a couple of years back and talked me into buying one this past winter ) So we take the boat out to the lake, it's 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky and the coolers loaded with beer..GREAT DAY ON THE LAKE... and then it happens... not more than 30 seconds out from the launch the damn alarm sounds.... we check everything we can think of and discover nothing coming out of the pee hole... we limp back to the launch, trailer the boat. I suggest we come back to the house, and let me hook a hose up and flush the motor. This was cool because it was something he didn't know about and I could show him... flush the motor for about ten minutes, water running out of the lower unit but still nothing out of the pee hole. Then he just sticks a tooth pick in the pee hole and it starts "dripping" water.. sticks it in there again, and all of a sudden a tiny piece of moss sticks out, he pulls it out and water starts pouring... ( we now keep a box of toothpics stored on the boat ). Back to the lake we go and we cruised from north of Shreveport, Louisiana over to Uncertain, texas... about 35 miles each way.. it was great. Lake patrol did stop us and check us out, no problem, we were legal. oh, this gives me a chance to correct something I said in one of my previous posts about boat speed. I had said at 3/4 throttle I was getting 22 mph or so ( 20 foot pontoon boat with a yammy F75 ). Well apparently I was looking at the minutes to arrival box on the gps, not the speed.... turns out at wot, with a fair amount of chop on the water, I was getting 23 mph, might get 25 to 26 max on a crystal smooth lake...... ended up spending about 4 hours just driving the boat, talking, listening to tunes and of course "drinkin beer"... what a great day it was, that was almost up by a tiny piece of moss... oh btw, the yammy is apparently pretty easy on gas... this little trip was alittle longer than 3 1/2 hours long and we burned alittle less than a quarter tank of gas... and to think an itty bitty teeny weenie piece of moss almost ruined my day with my son.... but after all was said and done, it really was a great day on the lake...

Glad it all worked out. Sounds like you ended up having a great time with your son. I don't know if I'll ever be able to spend quality time with ANYBODY anymore. People punching on their cell phones, friends or family, nobody can fish or do anything longer than 60 seconds without punching on their damn phones.

It's like a phreaking umbilical cord that people can't seem do without. What kind of head problems are these kids gonna have down the road? They can't make a decision without texting/calling 8 of their friends.

Sorry to piss on your post.

Rant over

pee hole plug. yep weve gotta watch out for them mud dobber wasps pluggin it up with mud

Now you know the true meaning of life

That is the first thing I check. I have even used a piece of pine straw to clear it. I you don't have anything, usually you can take the cowl off an squeeze the rubber tube. This will break up the dirt clod.
doc

I always like to put mine on the muffs and crank it up for a few minutes before we head to the water.
Glad it turned out OK for you. Sounds like you and your son had a good day.

Woody wrote:I always like to put mine on the muffs and crank it up for a few minutes before we head to the water.
Glad it turned out OK for you. Sounds like you and your son had a good day.

I wish everyone would do that. Nothing worse than waiting in line at the ramp and someone can't start their boat.

Yeah, that burns my ass too.

Sounds like you guys had a great day. Glad that your new toon is turning out to be a great investment.

we always muff ours before heading out I would hate to get everyone there and loaded and pfffffffffffffffft.

they used to make plastic pee hole covers that snapped into place. put a ribbon on them
that says "remove before running" like the "remove before flight" ribbons on aircraft stuff.

FloterBoter wrote:they used to make plastic pee hole covers that snapped into place. put a ribbon on them
that says "remove before running" like the "remove before flight" ribbons on aircraft stuff.

A stainless steel bolt and a piece of red ribbon would to the job.

Not to be a kill joy here but seldom if ever would a clogged pee hole cause an alarm on an outboard. The pee hole is just a tell tale that you have water pressure. You can still have plenty of water pressure through the motor with no water coming out the pee hole if it's due to a clog in the pipe coming from the motor (mud dobbler, spiders and such). This would not cause an alarm but you do want to address the matter as many did by clearing the tube. I would have you ECM (engine control module) read to see what the alarm was for. The system should have captured it.

Reckon something like a piece of tape might work?
doc

dockholiday wrote:Reckon something like a piece of tape might work?
doc

I reckon it aints be fancy nough for them ther city slickrs. Gots ta hav a snap wits the "remove before running" ribbon.